After several threats, Twitter has now sued Elon Musk for going back on the $44 billion deal on Tuesday. Musk submitted a court filing on Friday that said that a quick trial is unreasonable.
“This Court should reject Plaintiff Twitter, Inc.’s (“Twitter”) unjustifiable request to rush this $44 billion merger case to trial in just two months. Twitter’s bid for extreme expedition rests on the false premise that the Termination Date in the merger agreement (“Agreement”) is October 24, glossing over that this date automatically stays if either party files litigation. By filing its complaint, Plaintiff has rendered its supposed need for a September trial moot,” stated the filing.
Twitter is suing Musk to force him to go forward with his acquisition of the company. However, Musk has argued that he is entitled to drop the deal because the company hasn’t given him enough information to tell if its estimates about the number of spam bots on the platform are accurate.
Musk’s filing mentions a May 6 meeting he had with Twitter’s chief executive officer and chief financial officer where they reviewed how the company estimates how many bots are on the platform.
“For nearly two months, Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to “make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform” (our letter to you dated May 25, 2022 (the “May 25 Letter”). This information is fundamental to Twitter’s business and financial performance and is necessary to consummate the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement because it is needed to ensure Twitter’s satisfaction with the conditions to closing, to facilitate Mr. Musk’s financing and financial planning for the transaction, and to engage in transition planning for the business,” said the filing.
“Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information.”
Twitter, contrarily, claims that Musk wasn’t genuinely interested in finding out about bots but rather sent a series of escalating requests that the firm could not meet. The court will now hold a hearing Tuesday to address Twitter’s request for an expedited trial.